S.Hogan

13 Ways To Extend your Laptop Battery Life

S.Hogan / May 13, 2008

Everyone knows it’s a problem. A zillion articles and lists on how to extend laptop battery life dot the Internet. The problem is that most are just vague lists … I’m going to tell you what I found that works and how to set it up. These tips are not for using the laptop around the house. This is for when you must get the absolute most from your current battery charge. How much will it get you? How about a whopping 58% more use time?

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From Bloat To Craplet

S.Hogan / April 24, 2008

From bloatware to craplets seems like a logical progression for unwanted waste. Are computer manufacturers finally taking this logical approach to removing the crap-lets they’ve been dumping on us?

Yesterday I was setting up a new laptop for a friend. I wanted to get it out of the box and make sure there were no problems accessing the Internet. After testing and timing the laptops used for our last look at bloatware, I was worried that my friend would end up with a mess. Surprisingly the first boot went smoother than I expected. There was no flood of pop-ups or junk. Humph!

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Trashed From The Factory Straight To Your Doorstep

S.Hogan / April 21, 2008

Recently my focus has been on how the computer manufacturers are clogging our machines with boatware and craplets. My most recent look at this problem was disheartening to say the least. Instead of continuing to whine, I decided to see what I could do about the problem.

I started with a Sony VAIO VGN-NR185 laptop. The same one used in the ï¿½From Bloat To Crapletï¿½ article. This first laptop uses an Intel Core2 Duo 1.6 GHz processor and 1024 MB of memory. I’ve always liked the VAIO from Sony but the recent problem with craplets and Sony’s position on DRM has led me to safer alternatives. I wanted to see how much time it took to clear this machine of the headaches installed by Sony.

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Windows 98 Turns 70 In Dog Years

S.Hogan / April 3, 2008

This year marks the 10th anniversary of windows 98. Because of this and the fact that Vista is getting so much press, albeit negative, we decided to do an actual comparison using Windows 98, Windows XP, and Windows Vista, just to get a true idea of how far technology has progressed. The results might be surprising to some of you and were certainly an eye-opener for me.

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Black Rhinos and White Elephants

S.Hogan / March 19, 2008

With great excitement I set off to snap pictures of laptop herds, grazing the shelves of the local Best Buy. Sporting my new macro capable camera and memory card, this was going to be a pictorial review that would rival the Discovery channel’s ï¿½Tribes of the Orinocoï¿½. We all know how bad laptop keyboards are. Cramped with missing keys, these are the trophies I seek.

As I entered the store, the smell of fresh electronics sharpened my senses. I found my first large herd fanned out across Brand Name Gulch. Camera in hand I rushed to the front of the herd knowing I was between them and the only outlet. It took some tricky footwork to position a shot of their

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Optimus Maximus

S.Hogan / March 18, 2008

Tired of missing the backspace because of a lazy pinky? Need some extra function keys for Gaming? Want to use color to reduce your hunt and peck time? No Problem, make that key any size you want or any function you want. Art Lebedev, of Art Lebedev Studios, is using OLED technology to remedy all the scenarios above and many more. My hardware closet contains at least 12 keyboards so I have no clue how I missed reading about this before now. I do remember some vague comments about OLED technology a few months back, but nothing like what I’ve read today. Optimus Maximus, you will be mine!

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Dual Core Double Delicious

S.Hogan / February 26, 2008

Blame it on the chewing gum.

Double the processor cores means twice a fast, right? That’s what a lot of people are mistakenly thinking. In the past three years, starting with the AMD Opteron, both major producers have been serving up dual core processors like they were tater chips. Manufacturers have been incorporating them into their latest and greatest portables and desktop offerings. Intel has confirmed this as a great decision by following suite with their version of Dual and even Quad core processors. The general public is snatching them up like chips for dip.

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New Box Blues

S.Hogan / February 5, 2008

All Brand New and Ready to Roll

Yep, when I plunk down $500.00 to $1200.00 or more, I’d like to think I’m getting the latest and greatest. We all know electronics become outdated faster than potato salad at a Texas picnic, but I would at least expect to get the darned thing out of the box before having to update it. Our recent comparisons found just the opposite.

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Windows SP3: The Long Journey

S.Hogan / January 10, 2008

Fact and Fable

Unlike a lot of sequels, Windows XP SP3 is better than the original. Any day now the official release is due to hit the streets. Rumors of 10% performance increases crowd my Googled results. My mind travels to increased scores for benchmarks. Microsoft’s favored son is rising to the position of SUPER HERO. “WINDOWS XP CONQUERS….” Oh, sorry, I’ll get back to earth now.

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Vista SP1

S.Hogan / January 10, 2008

Where is it? Everyone’s waiting, let’s hurry along.

Service packs are currently being used by Microsoft as a way of delivering updates to reliability and performance, but Vista marks Microsoft’s effort to reduce the focus on Service Packs. Users are reminded that the current Update Online Service is available and working as a way to immediately deliver improvements and fixes.

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